The Finished Thing:

We ended up with a wooden window with a piece of material on the back so we could backward project a storm. This also has storm sounds through a set of speakers. We also have a heart rate monitor and a tablet on the table. The storm changes when you type in words and also changes with your heart rate.

What Went Well:

The project looks completely different to what we originally thought of and kept changing up until the last day. It has even changed since I took this picture.

The addition of a heart rate sensor was originally difficult and inaccurate but seems to be working a lot better now thanks to a mix of my case idea and Liam’s programming skills.

When we decided on backward projection we needed to find the right fabric and the branded stuff is a ridiculous price. Luckily another group was doing a similar thing and they pointed me towards a cheap fabric shop. ROAD TRIP! Kale and I went and looked through the shop for a good while and eventually found it. I also brought double what we needed because if you don’t you’ll end up needing it. I ironed It and staple gunned it to the frame tight and it looked good.

The window was originally thought to be placed in a wall we would build but this changed to a hanging design. We had a few problems here mostly the pole we brought was too small for the stands and the chain was unstable and fell in testing. I managed to fix both of these. The size of the pole I fixed with some cut up puzzle floor foam mats that I wrapped around the pole where the stand connects. I also made the chain a lot safer by turning the hooks that the window hung off, into loops by bending them around, which was a lot harder than it sounds.

After this, we moved it into position and set up the projector. Then I worked out how to change the projector so it was mirrored so everything was the right way around. Then another group decided to take up most of the studio space moving our projector so we relocated and re-setup.

The PC and projector I set up in a way that if the power was cut for some reason it would automatically turn back on and auto start all of the software; at the same time as not sleep, shutdown, or update.

The Arduino soldering also went well and we didn’t have any problems apart from length which just meant I needed to extend the wires a bit. I managed to solder around the case well and make it not look terrible

The last thing on the list is PC. I bought a spare PC in to use and tried to make the cables as tidy as possible making good use of extension cables.

What Didn’t:

I had a huge interest in using EEG for this project and did a lot of programming and research into using it for measuring stress. However, the EEG we were going to use for this project stopped functioning and we couldn't get another in time.

I also spent a large amount of time trying to work with the connect in processing, about a week. It was a nightmare. If the drivers weren't crashing, the libraries and APIs were. Eventually, I ended up just using a webcam and got the same effect but it took a matter of hours rather than days. My end goal was a program that gave a number out between 1 and 10 that showed the amount of movement of a subject. 0 being no movement and 10 being starjumps. However, this code wasn’t used in the final submission.

The stain was a fairly last minute decision and was rushed. I fell it could be better but it will do the job. Either way, it looks a bit better than plain wood. However, some stain go onto the fabric and it needed to be removed (luckily I brought double) I planned to redo it but it was done when I next saw it. It wasn’t ironed this time and wasn’t completely tight. It doesn’t look as good as it did but I hope with the projector on and lights off, no one will notice.

Something I seem to always struggle with is making time to blog. For me, it takes so much energy and I need to get into a certain mood to do it. I still have about 10 other half done related posts in my drafts folder that I didn’t get to finish. I definitely fell I could have blogged more.

The last problem that we are still dealing with is the program freezing. I blame windows and wish I installed Linux like I usually would for a project like this, but, too late now.

What I learned:

I learned a lot more about creative teams, as much as I hate working with people in a group; It is essential to the creative process or at least helps speed it up. Having other people helps trigger new ideas and also weed out bad ones. This works especially well if you haven’t worked together before like I explained in my first ctec503 post - http://blog.epsilum.co.nz/post/164504325489. 

I also learned a lot from the research I did because of this project. I built on other things that I researched in the past, such as EEG, Neurology, and Japanese concepts.

Conclusion:

This was a long project, but, it went fast! I’m glad to say its coming to an end but I definitely had some fun making this with the group, all of whom I didn’t know at all before this project started. A lot went wrong and could be better but overall I am happy with the outcome.